The Brooklyn based party band, Wheatus, best known for their 2000 hit “Teenage Dirtbag”, played a fun 9 song opening set in support of Mike Doughty’s 25th Anniversary tour of Soul Coughing’s debut record “Ruby Vroom” last Wednesday at the U Street Music Hall.

The setlist was totally impromptu, and consisted of on-the-spot choices by both the crowd and band members. Wheatus opened with “The London Sun”, the super catchy 2005 single from their third album Too Soon Monsoon. The crowd sang along to a faithful cover of Erasure’s “A Little Respect” complete with the harmonizing backing vocals of Gabrielle Sterbenz and Joey Slater. In addition, the band performed a whopping four songs off of 2013’s Valentine LP as well as the unreleased track “Michelle”.

Local radio station DC 101 received a shout-out from guitarist and vocalist Brendan B. Brown. He noted that they were one of the first stations in the country to play their hit “Teenage Dirtbag”. Then Brendan said, “for that, you get “Teenage Dirbag” as they broke into song. Their short set ended with the title track from the Valentine LP, described by Brown as a “post apocalyptic love ballad”. After ending their set, Brown joked that he, drummer Madden Klass, and bassist Matthew Milligan ” will go step into the phone booth” in order to transform into Doughty’s backing band.  

Wheatus was a delightful surprise. Their totally off-the-cuff setlist and humorous interactions with each other and the audience made this a perfect way to start the evening! Enjoy these photos from Wheatus performing at U Street Music Hall on February 27, 2019. All photos copyright and courtesy of Shantel Breen/These Subtle Sounds.